Sprint will be cutting an unspecified number of jobs that will result in a $160 million expense during the month of October in order to ultimately cut costs.
Sprint is currently the third-largest carrier in the U.S. It is competing with the likes of Verizon and AT&T, which are larger, and T-Mobile, which is ranked fourth.
"We're still working through the details so exact numbers and locations are not available at this time," said Roni Singleton, a spokesperson for Sprint, continuing on to say that the cuts will include both managers and other employees.
The cuts will result in a $160 million expense for things like severance, among other costs in the fiscal second quarter, according to a filing that the company made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It has 38,000 employees at the end of last year.
Sprint has undergone a number of changes this year. Its new owner, SoftBank of Japan, replaced longtime CEO Dan Hesse in August with entrepreneur Marcelo Claure. This happened after Sprint dropped its bid for rival carrier T-Mobile. Claure had previously been CEO of a company called Brightstar, which is also a part of SoftBank. SoftBank bought 70 percent of Sprint last year.
Sprint will be making a number of other changes in the coming months. Sprint chairman and CEO of SoftBank, Masayoshi Son, has said that the company needs to be more aggressive in competing with other carriers in the U.S.
"To do that, we started a comprehensive review looking at every dollar that is spent, and if there are things that don't make sense, we will cut them fast," said Claure. "I come from a low-cost industry, and I'm going to try to apply some of that methodology."
The company itself has posted more than $46 billion in losses over the past seven years. Not only that, but this year alone the company's shares have fallen 42 percent.
The company will be facing some tough competition, especially from T-Mobile. While T-Mobile is ranked the fourth-largest carrier, it has vowed to overtake Sprint by the end of the year. Not only that, but Verizon and AT&T have launched a number of promotions of their own. Many are expecting promotions and prices to continue to be cut in the much-anticipated carrier price war.
In January, Sprint made a similar job cut announcement, saying that it would take a $165 million charge for a number of job cuts. In August 2013, the company also cut around 800 jobs in its customer support division.
